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Mark Hecht, as a British Columbia writer and teacher, has never been shy to challenge existing narratives that probe soft underbellies where new stories lay in wait, ready to offer new angles on the way society views itself.
In his most recent book, Running Away From Stalin—the biography of a man who lived under Stalin and Hitler before finding freedom in Canada—Hecht tells the story of a Mennonite man and his family who flee the horrors of Communist persecution under Joseph Stalin and choose the perceived safety of Nazi Germany under Adolf Hitler instead. The story of convoluted loyalties challenges simple narratives of oppressor/oppressed to show that difficult choices given to people in times of war and global turmoil are more nuanced than most can possibly fathom. Hecht has published articles, mostly of a socio-political nature, in Merion West, The Dominion Review, The Canadian Journal, The Vancouver Sun, and Areo, among others.
Hecht’s global impact earned him the honour of being listed in Merion West as one of the top five in, “Editor’s Choice: the Best Interviews of 2020.”
While teaching geography at Mount Royal University in Calgary, Alberta from 2008 to 2019 he contributed to various textbooks and worked as an editor for numerous publishers including Pearson Canada, Wiley & Sons, WH Freeman & Co., and ABC-CLIO.
Recurring themes in Hecht’s life and writing revolve around deep connections to the natural world, especially plant medicine, and stories of challenge and triumph in war and conflict.
Hecht is a member of The Writer’s Union of Canada and currently lives on a float home on the waters of the Salish Sea.
BOOKS:
Running Away From Stalin: The Life & Times of Alfred Hecht, Phd, Dr. (Heidl Media Co. $23 hc) 9780995177048
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A Micro-Review by Sean Arthur Joyce (2024)
Mark Hecht’s Running Away From Stalin, a family memoir, reminds us that history must be writ both great and small, both in the macro and the micro. For it’s when history becomes personal that it transcends a mere catalogue of the past to touch us deeply, to remind us of the terrible cost of war. Hecht’s Russian-German Mennonite ancestors during World War II found themselves caught “between the hammer and the anvil,” as the British say—caught between Stalin’s uneasy relationship with the Mennonites and the shifting tides of war. One day they are in Russian territory menaced by the German army, the next—as the war draws to a close—in German territory menaced by the Soviet army as lines on the map are redrawn. The Hecht family finds themselves among tens of millions of Europeans whose homes have been blown to pieces and their past lives with it. Added into this already dangerous mix is a blend of people both unscrupulous—ready to take advantage of others when they’re at their lowest ebb—and kind enough to put themselves at risk to help complete strangers. Fortunately for the Hecht family there’s a happy ending, but for millions more the story ended far worse. Mark Hecht has done far more than merely record one family’s history; he has put lifeblood into the remote facts of history. May our hearts beat with renewed compassion as a result of reading his book.
[BCBW 2025]
In his most recent book, Running Away From Stalin—the biography of a man who lived under Stalin and Hitler before finding freedom in Canada—Hecht tells the story of a Mennonite man and his family who flee the horrors of Communist persecution under Joseph Stalin and choose the perceived safety of Nazi Germany under Adolf Hitler instead. The story of convoluted loyalties challenges simple narratives of oppressor/oppressed to show that difficult choices given to people in times of war and global turmoil are more nuanced than most can possibly fathom. Hecht has published articles, mostly of a socio-political nature, in Merion West, The Dominion Review, The Canadian Journal, The Vancouver Sun, and Areo, among others.
Hecht’s global impact earned him the honour of being listed in Merion West as one of the top five in, “Editor’s Choice: the Best Interviews of 2020.”
While teaching geography at Mount Royal University in Calgary, Alberta from 2008 to 2019 he contributed to various textbooks and worked as an editor for numerous publishers including Pearson Canada, Wiley & Sons, WH Freeman & Co., and ABC-CLIO.
Recurring themes in Hecht’s life and writing revolve around deep connections to the natural world, especially plant medicine, and stories of challenge and triumph in war and conflict.
Hecht is a member of The Writer’s Union of Canada and currently lives on a float home on the waters of the Salish Sea.
BOOKS:
Running Away From Stalin: The Life & Times of Alfred Hecht, Phd, Dr. (Heidl Media Co. $23 hc) 9780995177048
*
A Micro-Review by Sean Arthur Joyce (2024)
Mark Hecht’s Running Away From Stalin, a family memoir, reminds us that history must be writ both great and small, both in the macro and the micro. For it’s when history becomes personal that it transcends a mere catalogue of the past to touch us deeply, to remind us of the terrible cost of war. Hecht’s Russian-German Mennonite ancestors during World War II found themselves caught “between the hammer and the anvil,” as the British say—caught between Stalin’s uneasy relationship with the Mennonites and the shifting tides of war. One day they are in Russian territory menaced by the German army, the next—as the war draws to a close—in German territory menaced by the Soviet army as lines on the map are redrawn. The Hecht family finds themselves among tens of millions of Europeans whose homes have been blown to pieces and their past lives with it. Added into this already dangerous mix is a blend of people both unscrupulous—ready to take advantage of others when they’re at their lowest ebb—and kind enough to put themselves at risk to help complete strangers. Fortunately for the Hecht family there’s a happy ending, but for millions more the story ended far worse. Mark Hecht has done far more than merely record one family’s history; he has put lifeblood into the remote facts of history. May our hearts beat with renewed compassion as a result of reading his book.
[BCBW 2025]
